


The struggle of not worrying

by Land_of_Domes



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Fluff, Secret Santa, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 20:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16981170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Land_of_Domes/pseuds/Land_of_Domes
Summary: Being seperated and trapped in a snow storm is never fun.





	The struggle of not worrying

**Author's Note:**

> So this was written for the 2018 Doctor Who secret santa on tumblr and I hope the recipient will like it ;) Happy festive days everyone! (I might actually continue this, it was interesting to write) And as always English is not my first language so try and be nice if you want to leave a review.

Every bar, no matter the country or the planet (or even the universe), seemed to have one of those days. Yes, one of those days. One of those days where time appeared to flow as slow as the raindrops children might watch racing down their window from the inside of their warm cozy home , never noticing that the rain had already stopped and the drops never moved at all. 

_One of those days._ The bartender, who was not a bartender at all, thought and picked up a squeaky clean glass only to rub at an invisible spot with a dirty rag. This phenomenom of the bartender cleaning already clean glasses is in no way limited to a single species and in fact widely spread across the worlds, although not a single scholar has ever been able to explain it. If you were a bartender (or pretending to be one) with less than seven guests your hand was very likely to reach for that old rag without you even noticing it. This bartender however did know why. But then again she knew more about the causality and the sure absurdity of time than most people. And currently she was trying to waste it. If one could call waiting for that one special person to walk through the door as wasting time. 

It was quite a nice bar in a town that, at some stage, must have been very nice as well. But the altering of the planets atmosphere, and with that of course the altered climate, had transformed a once wonderous green planet, filled with millions and trillions of lifeforms, into a cold and barren wasteland. Of course that didn't stop the enterpreneurs of the nearby planets to install mining factories all over the planet. The bar was one of the few buildings recovered and upgraded for the miners limited recreation time. That was before the miners all disappeared of course. 

_Picked of one by one,_ she mused and rubbed the glass even harder, _they never had a chance._ Just like her and the rest of the defrosting bar patrons if that snow storm didn't settle down soon. Who knew how long the buildings emergency generators lasted, after all. 

They had fought off the species the miners had awoken with their drills in their greed and got seperated from the rest when the storm started, barely managing to reach the bar. The creature and the others...well. She sighed and sat down the now dirty glass, reaching for the next one already. She didn't worry per se, that just wasn't in her nature. After all, she knew how it ended. 

_Or at least how it's supposed to end._

Once they had entered the building she tried her best to fashion an environmental suit, but without any success. There was nothing to do but to wait so, naturally, she had immediately stepped behind the bar and assumed the role of the bartender. 

"Hey curly!" One of the few colleagues she actually liked, a young Shrimha called Pholgol, called out to her and tried to wink with five of his 12 eyes at her. 

"I'm not quite sure what the protocol with flirting with humanoids is..."

She rolled her eyes, more amused than annoyed, at his antics. Had she ever really been that young and carefree?

"Darling, you're barely old enough to set a foot in here let alone flirt with a woman older than your Scarcran." The woman replied and poured herself another glass of amber liquid that might have passed for terran whisky if you closed your eyes and pretended really hard not to have any tastebuds. She looked at the door again. It wasn't in her nature to worry... but still. 

The storm was roaring around the small structure and the viewing panels were pure white from the never ending snow fall. 

She dropped her gaze from the door only to notice a tiny bit of a dry leaf hanging onto her sleeve, the last remnant from the trip before this one and she quietly thought of how nice it had been back when she could still feel all of her toes. 

Pholgol, now finnaly ceasing the flirting with what he considered an exotic species, had shifted his monologue to the artifacts they had found in the upper level of the mines. Truly fascinating objects which thery had been in the process of recovering when the life form showed up and then shortly after that familiar thworp thworp sounds and then he himself appeared. Of course it was him. Who else would show up when a deeply misunderstood creature threatened to kill the entire planets population. It was a common occurence by now really. Almost cliche. And as the story naturally had to proceed when they finally managed to surround the life form in two groups, the snow storm had abruptly started and a giant snow slide forced them to seperate. Her group was closer to the entrance of the old town while the creature and the others had to flee into the mines. Without any means of defense and most likely any light source that surely wasn't a situation most would describe as ideal. Still, it wasn't in her nature to worry. She scrubbed harder at the glass. 

Pholgol seemingly satisfied with her absentminded reply she strangely couldn't remember to have made, moved back to his pals near the main heater and began to wave all six of his arms around in a most likely crazy retelling of their "flirt". In their small group he was the best suited to their cold environment due to his thick purple and blue fur. A fact that made him the cheeriest out of all of them. Not that she was in a foul mood or worried or something. That just wasn't her nature. She put down another now "clean" glass and noticed that there were none left. Nothing to really entertain herself with but her own thoughts. 

She actually considered to join her colleagues around the heater when the door was flung open and the reast of their team, almost frozen solid stepped into the bar. And coming in behind them was... a walking snowman. Or a very tall man completely covered in snow.

"What can I get you, sweetie?"

The snowman grunted out an answer.

River smiled.


End file.
